WASHINGTON — Fearful that the White House might scale back manned space exploration, a bipartisan group of lawmakers slipped a provision into a massive government spending package last week that would force President Barack Obama to seek congressional approval for any changes to the ambitious Bush-era, back-to-the-moon program.

The little-noticed legislative maneuver could yield massive payoffs for the Houston area, which has tens of thousands of jobs tied to manned space exploration. The congressional action hands NASA supporters additional leverage in their behind-the-scenes campaign to persuade Obama to budget an extra $3 billion a year to finance the return of astronauts to the moon by 2020 rather than revamping — and cutting — the manned space effort.

“Congress' commitment to our nation's human spaceflight program is unwavering with respect to the path we have already charted,” says Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose congressional district includes Johnson Space Center. “The debate should not be if we are moving forward, but how we are going to pay for it.”

Democrats in the House and Senate joined forces with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., in the end-of-year legislative avalanche to insert language into a must-sign spending package that requires the president to ask Congress for all the money that would be needed to adjust the scope or timetable of human spaceflight.

None of the $18.7 billion given NASA to spend this year and in future years “shall be available for the termination or elimination” of any part of the Constellation program, the legislation declares, or to “create or initiate a new program” without “subsequent appropriations acts.”

snip-----------------------------------------

And a few days earlier the speculation is that no decision from President Obama yet as to where we stand on going to the Moon.- LRK -

White House officials say President Obama has not yet made a decision on the fate of NASA's moon program, two days after an Oval Office meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Obama and Bolden met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the space agency's work and the results of the Augustine commission, a panel of experts that submitted options in October for the future of the human space program.

A report by the online edition of Science magazine late Thursday said Obama plans to request a $1 billion increase in the NASA budget for 2011. The money would fund a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, and the agency's current Ares 1 rocket design would be scrapped in favor of commercial crew transportation services to Earth orbit, according to the Science report.

The Ares 5 rocket is currently NASA's design for a heavy-lift launcher. Engineers are also studying other designs more closely based on the space shuttle.

NASA and White House officials claim such reports are mere speculation, but they are providing no information on when a decision could be announced. The administration will file its fiscal year 2011 budget request in February.

"The meeting with Bolden was informational, not decisional," said Nick Shapiro, White House spokesman.

snip-----------------------------------------

Decisions, decisions, my oh my, what shall we do?And then all of those suggestions on how we should go.- LRK -

The Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle, or simply Shuttle-Derived Vehicle (SDV), is a term describing one of a wide array of concepts that have been developed for creating space launch vehicles from the components, technology and/or infrastructure of the Space Shuttle program. In 2005, NASA decided to develop the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, based in part on highly modified Shuttle components to replace the Space Shuttle and enable exploration of the Moon and Mars.[1][2] In early 2007, the agency confirmed that it was formally studying a third such vehicle, the Ares IV.

snip-----------------------------------------

My stomach is quizzy, my head is dizzy, the ground under me feels not too solid.I feel like I am watching a tennis match with the ball flying from one court to another.Just back in 2008 a summary of launch concepts.- LRK -

NASA has spent substantial effort over several years to consider many launch concepts, and the Agency stands by its decision to develop the Constellation architecture, which includes the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. NASA has chosen these systems based upon significant analysis, and the Agency believes it has the best program in place to meet our Nation's future Exploration needs.

Shortly after arriving at NASA, Administrator Michael Griffin chartered the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) in May 2005, comprised of experts at NASA Headquarters and across the NASA field centers. All databases, expertise and analytical models were applied to this critical task. Particular emphasis was placed on the family of launch vehicles that would be needed to support future Exploration goals. A large number of options were evaluated, including quantitative comparisons on the basis of important measures of merit such as development cost, recurring cost, funding profiles, safety, reliability, development risk, schedule risk, and other factors. The launch families considered included various Shuttle-derived options, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)-derived options and mixes of the two. Outside experts were brought-in to assess the ESAS results.

Several of the Shuttle-derived concepts that were considered during ESAS, and in other studies, were similar to the Jupiter system identified as part of the DIRECT proposal. However, using current ground rules and assumptions, and utilizing validated NASA and industry design and analysis tools, NASA has determined that the DIRECT proposal is unlikely to achieve its claims of improved performance, safety and development costs when compared to the Ares I and Ares V approach. In addition, the limited data available in the online DIRECT proposal do not support the claims of increased safety. Also, analysis shows that the DIRECT proposal would cost more than the Ares family in the near-term and also on a recurring launch basis. Finally, the DIRECT proposal would take longer to develop when compared to the Ares vehicles when factoring in the extensive core stage development effort and the associated acquisitions.

Since completion of the ESAS, NASA has continued to improve the baseline architecture to significantly lower life cycle costs of the Ares vehicles. NASA's analysis confirms that the Ares I and V vehicles enable the lowest cost and safest launch architecture which meets the Agency's requirements for support of the International Space Station, as well as lunar and Mars exploration. Several improvements have been made to the Ares ESAS baseline (such as the decisions to utilize the J-2X for both the Ares 1 and the Ares V Upper Stage engine and the RS-68 instead of the Space Shuttle Main Engines for the Ares V core engine) which reduced life cycle costs by several billions of dollars.

snip-----------------------------------------

It would be nice if we would affirm that we want to develop the Moon, Mars, Asteroids, and the use of space in general, and then follow through with the tasks needed to achieve the goals. Hmmmmmm, seems we do that - seems we do that - seems we do that, wish I didn't sound like a broken record. - LRK -http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/CxEMM_SITE/index.html

Well 2010 is almost here, 2011, then I grow older. Looks like I am going to have to live as long as my mom, now 99, to see something happen.

DIRECT is an alternative approach to launching missions planned under NASA's new mandate: The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). DIRECT would replace the separate Ares-I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) and Ares-V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) with one single "Jupiter" launcher, capable of performing both roles.

Innovation Pays: Inspired by the Spirit of St. Louis, Peter Diamandis started the X-Prize Foundation with a $10 million prize for the invention of a private spaceship. Now, the X-Prize is inspiring designers of a lunar lander and research into genetic diseases.

Innovation is a new way of doing something or "new stuff that is made useful"[1]. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. Following Schumpeter (1934), contributors to the scholarly literature on innovation typically distinguish between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully in practice. In many fields, something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change, e.g., in the arts, economics, business and government policy. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.snip==============================================================http://www.businessweek.com/innovators/

A Milestone for BusinessWeekSince 1929, we've been chronicling innovations and the people who make them. Here are some of the best from the past 75 yearssnip==============================================================http://www.ideafinder.com/history/index.htmlThe Great Idea Finder

July 15, 1999 - Back in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 made the first around-the-moon flight — a Christmas mission that set the stage for the first moon landing less than a year later. In this excerpt from the book “Genesis,” Robert Zimmerman focuses on the events leading up to the “earthrise” picture, the first widely distributed picture of Earth as seen from the moon.

This excerpt begins just after the crew members of Apollo 8 — Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell — fired the Apollo spacecraft’s engines to enter lunar orbit on Dec. 24, 1968.

snipThe conversation soon turned serious. Borman really wanted to participate in that Christmas Day service, but didn’t have any idea what he could do. Fellow parishioner Rod Rose, an engineer at mission control, offered a solution. He would put together a short prayer that Borman could read from orbit, tape Borman’s recitation, and then play the tape back at church. For Borman, the practical test pilot, this plan was perfect. Rose cobbled together a prayer from a number of verses in the Bible, and went over it with Borman until both were happy.

Now, Borman waited until Lovell and Anders finished passing some new data to the ground. Then he began, a little self-consciously. “This is to Rod Rose and the people at St. Christopher’s, actually to people everywhere.” Borman took a breath. “Give us, o God, the vision which can see thy love in the world, in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.”

“Amen,” Mike Collins echoed softly.

Now Borman sheepishly added, “I was supposed to lay-read tonight, but I couldn’t quite make it.”

Mike Verakmp passed a clip from NASA News Service which has a link to a nice Holiday Card- LRK -

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Happy HolidaysWed, 23 Dec 2009 23:00:00 -0600Wishing all the happiest of holidays, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer their views of Saturn and its moons as gifts to the universe. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, is a mission that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the bottom of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.Image Credit: NASA/JPL

I just finished reading "COSMIC FISHING - An account of writing Synergetics with Buckminster Fuller", E.J. APPLEWHITE.Let me quote from page 156- LRK ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cosmic Fishing The information signals are forever bouncingelectromagnetically about the Universe, every sooften impinging on celestial entities and being eithertunably received or bounced off to travel elsewhere. If we fail to catch a cosmic fish it may be a trillionyears before the opportunity comes again. It will come. . . but it may not be in this Galaxy. Sumtotally, allthe fish will always eventually be caught and rebroadcast, but not all at the same rebroadcastingstations.------------------------------------------------------------------

In the next year will we be prepared to catch some cosmic fish?Such as.....- LRK -

------------------------------------------------------------------http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/23dec_voyager.htm?list965414December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

"Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solvesthe long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."snip------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally planned as a low Earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight in August 1968 when the Lunar Module scheduled for the flight became delayed. The new mission's profile, procedures and personnel requirements left an uncharacteristically short time frame for training and preparation, thus placing more demands than usual on the time, talent, and discipline of the crew.

After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. The crew timed this reading to coincide with a full view of planet Earth hanging in the empty blackness of space, clearly showing the rich diversity of the living planet, as indicated in Earth's colors, seas, landforms, and weather patterns, rising over the dull gray horizon of the lifeless Moon. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.snip==============================================================http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/Apollo8/Apollo8.htmlAPPOLO 8 MISSION

The overall objective of the mission was to demonstrate command and service module performance in a cislunar (between the Earth and Moon) and lunar-orbit environment, to evaluate crew performance in a lunar-orbit mission, to demonstrate communications and tracking at lunar distances, and to return high-resolution photography of proposed Apollo landing areas and other locations of scientific interest.

Fuller published more than thirty books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Strange feeling, just began reading "Critical Path" by R. Buckminster Fuller where he is commenting on how we can change from energy wasteful consumption to energy efficient use by changing our ways and using our new technological advances to advantage.- LRK -

... Continuing to attempt to fit our late-twentieth-century astronautical man-on-Moon-visiting capability into a ninetieth-century horse-and-buggy street pattern, house-to-house-yoo-hooing life-style (and a land baron racket) is so inefficient that the overall design of humanity's present social, economic, and political structuring and the physical technology it uses wastes ninety-five out of every 100 units of the energy it consumes. (Our automobiles' reciprocating engines are only 15-percent efficient, whereas turbines are 30 percent, jet engines 60 percent, and fuel cells used by astronauts 80 percent.) In the United States, throughout all twenty-four hours of every day of the year--year after year--we have an average of two million automobiles standing in front of red stoplights with their engines going, the energy for which amounts to that generated by the full efforts of 200 million horses being completely wasted as they jump up and down going nowhere. ...--------------------------------------------

And then I read Jun Okushi's Facebook post "World's First Fuel Cell Ship Docks in Copenhagen: Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com Can fuel cells and natural gas help reduce emissions from shipping? "- LRK -

COPENHAGEN—Pleasure yachts and tall ships line the wharves and quays of Nyhavn here in the Danish capital. Shipping in Denmark goes back to the Vikings and their long ships that made perilous sea crossings even beyond Greenland. Now what may be the future of shipping is docked around the corner from Nyhavn at Kvaesthusmolen pier, a bright orange and yellow North Sea supply ship from Norway dubbed "Viking Lady"—the first ship to employ a fuel cell in history.

As a result of flourishing world trade, shipping is now responsible for roughly three percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, or more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, along with smog-forming nitrogen oxides, acid-rain causing sulfur dioxides and soot. In fact, emissions of nitrogen oxides from one ship burning diesel in a year are greater than those from 22,000 cars. That's because ships burn bunker fuel or diesel to cleave through the waves but, according to Tor Svensen, CEO of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Maritime, "it is possible for shipping to reduce emissions, even taking into account growth in world trade."

snip

But in the case of the 5,900 metric ton Viking Lady, Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik and its partners have gone further, installing a 320-kilowatt molten carbonate fuel cell that operates on liquefied natural gas (and can be reconfigured, if necessary, to run on methanol). Storage tanks for the hydrogen and carbon dioxide that gets the fuel cell started press up against the stern of the 92.2 meter-long ship (in case of explosion) as do the machines to regasify the fuel. The fuel cell operates at 650 degrees Celsius and is warm to the touch, even on a blustery, frigid day in Copenhagen's harbor.

Already, liquefied natural gas is cheaper than diesel—if you can find it. Engineer and project developer Kjell Sandaker of Eidesvik notes there are as many as 15 such fueling stations along the Norwegian coast and the bright orange Viking Lady gases up once a week as its onboard turbines also directly burn the gas to supply electricity to the engines, though they can also burn diesel if necessary. The ship's 220 cubic meter tank can hold roughly 90 metric tons of liquefied natural gas at a time.snip--------------------------------------------

Fuel Cell, electric powered ships, what an idea. I hope the fuel cell test is successful and they actually use it to power the electric motors on the ship. Also note, when you read the article, that there is a motivation to use natural gas because of a tax on nitrogen oxide emissions.- LRK -

--------------------------------------------snipBut the investment was also made because Norway has a tax on nitrogen oxide emissions that paid an immediate return for installing gas rather than diesel engines, says Eidesvik CEO Jan Fredrik Meling. Compared to a traditional ship, even without using the fuel cell, the Viking Lady reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent, CO2 emissions by 20 percent and eliminates sulfur dioxide and soot emissions.snip-------------------------------------------

Now if they are to make a go of it they will need to have liquid gas stations at dockside. Slight paradigm shift required and as you might have guessed, aaaah, might need some government support.- LRK -

-------------------------------------------snipUltimately, whether the Viking Lady remains unique in the annals of shipping will depend on the political decisions that come out of the Copenhagen climate conference and in national capitals. "It will take 20 to 30 years for this technology without government support," says DNV's Tronstad. "If they want to act on climate soon, this is a technology that is available today."snip-------------------------------------------

I wonder what would happen if every home used some low tech skills to get us off the power grid? I shall continue to see what R. Buckminster Fuller has to suggest.- LRK -

Through this website we are seeking historical materials relating to fuel cells. We have constructed the site to gather information from people already familiar with the technology–people such as inventors, researchers, manufacturers, electricians, and marketers. This Basics section presents a general overview of fuel cells for casual visitors.

snip==============================================================http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cellA fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that produces electricity from a fuel tank. The electricity is generated through the reaction, triggered in the presence of an electrolyte, between the fuel (on the anode side) and an oxidant (on the cathode side). The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.

Fuel cells are different from conventional electrochemical cell batteries in that they consume reactant from an external source, which must be replenished[1] – a thermodynamically open system. By contrast, batteries store electrical energy chemically and hence represent a thermodynamically closed system.

Many combinations of fuels and oxidants are possible. A hydrogen fuel cell uses hydrogen as its fuel and oxygen (usually from air) as its oxidant. Other fuels include hydrocarbons and alcohols. Other oxidants include chlorine and chlorine dioxide.[2]

A fuel cell is a device that converts a fuel such as hydrogen, alcohol, gasoline, or methane into electricity directly. A hydrogen fuel cell produces electricity without any pollution, since pure water is the only byproduct.

Hydrogen fuel cells are used in spacecraft and other high-tech applications where a clean, efficient power source is needed.

You can make a hydrogen fuel cell in your kitchen in about 10 minutes, and demonstrate how hydrogen and oxygen can combine to produce clean electrical power.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2008) — In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat on Friday (November 14, 2008) with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon’s surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday. The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST.

snip

MIP’s 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.

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The Chandrayan-1 moon mission - discussion group is commenting on why it took so long for the word to get out that MIP had seen indications of water when in crashed into the Moon back in November 2008. This is the link they are talking about.

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation may have stolen the thunder of discovering water on the Moon.

The Moon Impact Probe on Chandrayaan-I appears to have sensed water earlier than Nasa's Moon Minerolgy Mapper (M3) but protocol did not allow ISRO to declare the discovery. While MIP detected water molecules on November 14, 2008, just 22 days after Chandrayaan-1's launch, M3 did so in March 2009.

J S Goswami, principal investigator for Chandrayaan-1, told TOI: ``We had indications of water on November 14, the day MIP crash-landed on the Moon. It sensed some sort of water molecules. We were absolutely delighted but it had to be corroborated. Without international examination and cross-examination and confirmation of the evidence, it would not have been right on our part to go public about it.''

Mylswami Annadurai, project director, Chandrayaan-1 and 2, explained why India did not go public with the discovery. ``International protocol requires us to discuss the evidence, cross-calibrate it with experts and it goes through a peer review and gets their approval. After all this, if it's a credible finding comes the go-ahead for its publication. This process can take three to four months, sometimes even seven. Only after publication can we speak about the evidence.''

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the MIP showed indications as it was crash-landing - it caught signatures of water. ``As the MIP was landing, it took some pictures that indicated the water molecules eventually found by M3.''

The MIP had picked up strong signals of water particles towards the polar region from 70 degree latitude to 80 degree latitude, according to Goswami. While this was known in November 2008, the M3 discovery of water in March 2009 was confirmed only three months later ^ in June. That's because US scientists wanted to be sure they had indeed found water and it took three months of rigorous cross-examination to confirm it. Publication after the confirmation also took time.

Officials said India scientists waited all this while to make the discovery public as they wanted the findings of such global significance to be first published in a scientific journal.-------snip----------------------------------------

Bangalore/Washington: India's own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country's maiden unmanned lunar craft had also detected evidence of water on the moon in a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA which too had an instrument onboard Chandrayaan-I.

snip

The NASA meanwhile thanked ISRO for enabling the discovery of water on Moon through Chandrayaan-I.

"We want to thank ISRO for making the discovery possible. Moon till now was thought to be a very dry surface with lot of rocks," NASA director Jim Green told reporters in Washington.

snip

In Bangalore, a beaming ISRO Chief G. Madhavan Nair said the MIP while descending from Chandrayaan-I to the moon surface about a fortnight after it was launched in October picked up strong signals of water particles. Nair's remark has triggered speculation whether an Indian space mission was the first to discover water on Moon.

"Our Chandrayaan I has confirmed the presence of water molecules on the moon," he said.

Nair said "while the moon impact probe landed, it took nearly 25 minutes. It took some pictures that indicated these water molecules. Another instrument HYS1 to map minerals also helped NASA'S M3 in finding water."

Apart from India's MIP, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) of NASA on board Chandrayaan-I also confirmed the presence of water, he said. The "quantity found is much larger than what was expected which is a real finding", he added.

The scientists, he said, significantly had indications of the finding "way back in June" but waited all these days to make it public as they wanted the findings of such a global significance to come out in a scientific journal first.

"This surprising finding(water on moon) has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organisation," Green said.

"We had indication way back in June but we did not want to announce it for the simple reason it had global significance and had to come out in a well established journal," Nair said.

The announcement of the finding has been timed with publication of the article in a journal.

"We have found signature on surface of water not in the form of sea, lake or even a poodle or even a drop you cannot pick it up just like that. It is embedded in surface in mineral and rock and we have clear indication OH and H20 are there on surface may be least for a few millimetre. The quantity was much larger than what was expeced, this is real finding", he said.

According to Goswami, whether there was water down below, the data got from the instruments were still being analysed.

"We have to wait for a while", he said. "Once we have solid results, we will talk to you at the point", he said.

"This is the first time in space research that (presence of) water is confirmed," he said, adding "we have contributed to significant discovery of water on the moon through the Chandrayaan."

Terming it "path breaking discovery" he said, it has "shattered the thought that the moon was bone dry.snip----------------------------------------

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning 2nd moon mission Chandrayaan-2 in 2013. Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is joining with ISRO for development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover.

Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover.

The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.

The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg, depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. The rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run predominantly on solar power.snip----------------------------------------

On 14 November 2008, the Moon Impact Probe separated from the Chandrayaan orbiter at 20:06 and struck the south pole in a controlled manner, making India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon.[10] The probe impacted near Shackleton Crater at 20:31 ejecting underground soil that could be analysed for the presence of lunar water ice.[11]

Bhargavi Kerur / DNA - Saturday, December 12, 2009 1:48 ISTBangalore: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.

They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium here on Friday.

Question Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moonhttp://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/repo...n-moon_1322785----------Quote:Bangalore: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.

They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium here on Friday.End Quote.----------

Saw this on another forum, wasn't brought up on a search.Reading through the article, it seems they base this off of readings of carbon and amino acids on the moon. Which, from what I understand of space, isn't so surprising, as both are found in space, without being tied to life.

The Indian Space Research Organization announced on 31 August that the Chandrayaan 1 mission has been officially terminated after contact was lost abruptly at 20:00 UT on 28 August. (2009)

Chandrayaan-1 is an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission designed to orbit the Moon over a two year period with the objectives of upgrading and testing India's technological capabilities in space and returning scientific information on the lunar surface. The spacecraft bus is roughly a 1.5 meter cube with a dry weight of 523 kg (Launch mass of the system, including its Lunar Apogee Motor, LAM, is 1380 kg). It is based on the Kalpansat meteorological satellite. Power is provided by a solar array which generates 750 W and charges lithium ion batteries. A bipropellant propulsion system is used to transfer Chandrayaan-1 into lunar orbit and maintain attitude. The spacecraft is 3-axis stabilized using attitude control thrusters and reaction wheels. Knowledge is provided by star sensors, accelerometers, and an inertial reference unit. Telecommand communications will be in S-band and science data transmission in X-band.

snip

Chandrayaan-1 will also carry a 35 kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) designed to be released from the spacecraft and hit the lunar surface. The MIP carried a video camera, a radar altimeter, and a mass spectrometer. The side panels of the box-like probe were painted with the Indianflag.

* Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota by PSLV-XL (PSLV-C11) on 22 October 2008 at 06:22 hrs IST in an highly elliptical initial orbit (IO) with perigee (nearest point to the Earth) of 255 km and an apogee (farthest point from the Earth) of 22,860 km, inclined at an angle of 17.9 deg to the equator. In this initial orbit, Chandrayaan orbited the Earth once in about six and a half hours.

snip

* On 14 November at 20:06 hrs IST, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) was ejected from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and hard landed on the lunar surface near the South Polar Region at 20:31 hrs IST after 25 minutes journey. It placed the Indian tricolour, which was pasted on the sides of MIP on the Moon.snip==============================================================

Monday, December 14, 2009

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, finishing its mission at our Moon, sends a last bit of information from the probe mass spectrometer on board the Indian payload near the south pole, "Carbon, Carbon, I sense Carbon." What could it mean, what could it mean? Could there be, or have been, life on the Moon? What say you?- LRK -

Bhargavi Kerur / DNA - Saturday, December 12, 2009 1:48 ISTBangalore: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.

They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium here on Friday.

Organic matter consists of organic compounds, which consists of carbon -- the building block of life.

It indicates the formation of life or decay of a once-living matter.

Pal said the signatures were relayed back to the Bylalu deep space network station near Bangalore by the mass spectrometer on board the Indian payload, the moon impact probe (MIP), on November 14, 2008.

The relay of data happened moments before it crashed near the Moon's south pole. The MIP was the first experiment of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, which was launched on October 22, 2008.snip----------------------------------------http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1

Some forum discussion about the statement of possible signs of/for life on the Moon.- LRK -

Did you see the movie, or read the book "The Andromeda Strain"?I was on an airplane bound for Thailand while reading this "Top Secret" book and reports of slain animals were in the news. :-)- LRK -

----------------------------------------http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_StrainThe Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood while, in other people, inducing insanity that mostly ended in the insane people committing suicide or murder-suicide. It became a New York Times Bestseller. This novel established Michael Crichton as a best-selling genre author.snip----------------------------------------

We have dust from space hitting us all the time, as would the Moon. Then there are meteors with hydrocarbons which may have struck the Moon as well. - LRK -

Tons, perhaps tens of tons, of carbon molecules in dust particles and meteorites fall on Earth daily. Meteorites are especially valuable to astronomers because they provide relatively big chunks of carbon molecules that are easily analyzed in the laboratory. In the past few years, researchers have noticed that most meteorite carbon are molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are very stable compounds and are survivors.

PAHs are the most common carbon-rich compound in the universe. They are found in everything from distant galaxies to charbroiled hamburgers and engine soot. When they are first formed, or found in space, their structures resemble pieces of chicken wire, fused six-sided rings. However, when found in meteorites, these aromatic rings are carrying extra hydrogen or oxygen.

Scientists at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. performed laboratory experiments that explain the process by which these meteoritic hydrocarbons attract the extra hydrogen and oxygen. They are very similar to the molecules identified as evidence of alienmicrobes in an earlier Science paper (McKay et al 1996).

“Our findings are important because it is the first time anybody explained these carbon-rich molecules found in meteorites. They are similar to the molecules that make-up living things,” said Max Bernstein, a space scientist at NASA Ames.

As it happened, their findings were judged significant enough to be award-winning. Published in Science (1999) by Bernstein and fellow NASA Ames scientists Scott Sanford and Louis Allamandola, their paper won the 2008 H. Julian Allen Award at NASA Ames Research Center.snip----------------------------------------

And of course you can talk about rocks that may have come from Mars and might show there had been life there. Makes for much discussion, and helped along with "Follow The Water",has us with missions to the Red Planet.- LRK -

A NASA research team of scientists at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, TX, and at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, has found evidence that strongly suggests primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago.

The NASA-funded team found the first organic molecules thought to be of Martian origin; several mineral features characteristic of biological activity; and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms inside of an ancient Martian rock that fell to Earth as a meteorite. This array of indirect evidence of past life will be reported in the August 16 issue of the journal Science, presenting the investigation to the scientific community at large for further study.

The two-year investigation was co-led by JSC planetary scientists Dr. David McKay, Dr. Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta of Lockheed-Martin, with the major collaboration of a Stanford team headed by Professor of Chemistry Dr. Richard Zare, as well as six other NASA and university research partners.

"There is not any one finding that leads us to believe that this is evidence of past life on Mars. Rather, it is a combination of many things that we have found," McKay said. "They include Stanford's detection of an apparently unique pattern of organic molecules, carbon compounds that are the basis of life. We also found several unusual mineral phases that are known products of primitive microscopic organisms on Earth. Structures that could be microsopic fossils seemto support all of this. The relationship of all of these things in terms of location - within a few hundred thousandths of an inch of one another - is the most compelling evidence."snip----------------------------------------

So I guess a question might be, will the present USA administration, find life on the Moon or at least put some there?

The Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Laboratory is located in the Space Sciences and Astrophysics Branch (SSA) of the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA's Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, California. This laboratory supports NASA’s space science missions and programs. We study the physical and chemical properties of interstellar, cometary, asteroidal, planetary and lunar materials. Among the materials studied are interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, the largest carbon molecules in space), aerosols in planetary atmospheres, ice mantles on interstellar grains and surface ices on comets and on solar system planets, and laboratory samples of actual extraterrestrial materials (meteorites and cosmic dust). Extraterrestrial material analogs are produced in our laboratory under conditions realistically close to space environments and range from molecules and ions in gas-phase interstellar clouds and planetary atmospheres to interstellar, cometary, and planetary ices and dust. The materials are studied using analytical techniques such as photonic spectroscopy, time-of-flight mass spectrometry and gas chromatography.

snip==============================================================http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbonPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are chemical compounds that consist of fused aromatic rings and do not contain heteroatoms or carry substituents.[1] PAHs occur in oil, coal, and tar deposits, and are produced as byproducts of fuel burning (whether fossil fuel or biomass). As a pollutant, they are of concern because some compounds have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. PAHs are also found in foods. Studies have shown that most food intake of PAHs comes from cereals, oils and fats. Smaller intakes come from vegetables and cooked meats.[2][3][4]

They are also found in the interstellar medium, in comets, and in meteorites and are a candidate molecule to act as a basis for the earliest forms of life. In graphene the PAH motif is extended to large 2D sheets.

snip==============================================================Sooooh, if the aliens are coming - as green slime - in a refrigerator or in a comet what did they find here? That meat can think. - LRK -

Thursday, December 10, 2009

This may not sound like a Moon, Mars, and Beyond topic, but I think that new ways to connect the population of this earth-bound world will play a part in getting us to space. Some may fear Google, like they fear Microsoft, or any other big and powerful corporation, still what they offer might be useful, especially if what they offer could help in uniting those with a common interest in developing space.

I was given an invitation to try Google Wave and have been looking at it.

At the moment it is still in the pre-Alpha stage so changes happen often and everything is not perfect, still the potential is there to make collaboration possible as more invitations are given out and the product matures.

This morning at Google I/O we are unveiling a developer preview of Google Wave, a new collaboration and communication product. Google Wave introduces a new platform built around hosted conversations called waves--this model enables people to communicate and work together in new and more effective ways. On top of that, with the Google Wave APIs, developers can take advantage of this collaborative system by building on the Google Wave platform. We want to expand upon that platform, which is why we've put together the initial draft of the Google Wave Federation Protocol, the underlying network protocol for sharing waves between wave providers.

Yes, that's between wave providers: anyone can build a wave server and interoperate, much like anyone can run their own SMTP server. The wave protocol is open to contributions by the broader community with the goal to continue to improve how we share information, together. If you're interested in getting involved, here are a few things you should check out on www.waveprotocol.org:

This is just the beginning. To help potential wave providers get started, our plan is to release an open source, production-quality, reference implementation of the Google Wave client and server, as well as provide an open federation endpoint by the time users start getting access.

If you are a programmer you may find that Google Wave doesn't do what you want, never mind, just use the Google Wave APIs and make your own gadget or bot.Put on your thinking cap and make the Wave work for you.- LRK -

1. Welcome to Wave Development 2. Wave Entities 3. What is the Wave API? 4. Sandbox Development

snip-----------------------------------------------------

We will have to wait and see if this turns out to be something useful for web users to communicate and collaborate. At least the tools are being made available to the public.Let me know what you think.- LRK -

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also aplatform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

The Google Wave API allows developers to use and enhance Google Wave through two primary types of development:

* Extensions: Build robot extensions to automate common tasks orbuild gadget extensions to provide a new way for users to interact * Embed: Make your site more collaborative by dropping in a Wave

Google Wave is currently available in a developer preview as the APIs and product continue to evolve. Accounts on the developer sandbox will be given out to people intending to build with the Google Wave APIs prior to the public release.

Instead of the typical Google Code logo, Labs products have onewith a conical flask as the "L". If you look in the upper-left cornerof this page, that's the logo you'll see for products in Labs. We'readmittedly fond of conical flasks so they may show up in other placesas well. * Green is the new blue

Instead of the blue page elements that you see on most GoogleCode pages, Labs products use green. For example, see the title barabove that says "Google Code Labs." For Labs products, you'll alsonotice "(Labs)" in the title bar, next to the product name.

This tutorial describes how to develop and deploy a simple Python project with Google App Engine. The example project, a guest book, demonstrates how to use the Python runtime environment, and how to use several App Engine services, including the datastore and the Google user service.

This tutorial has the following sections:

* Introduction * The Development Environment * Hello, World! * Using the webapp Framework * Using the Users Service * Handling Forms With webapp * Using the Datastore * Using Templates * Using Static Files * Uploading Your Application

Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users.

You can serve your app from your own domain name (such ashttp://www.example.com/) using Google Apps. Or, you can serve your app using a free name on the appspot.com domain. You can share your application with the world, or limit access to members of your organization.

Google App Engine supports apps written in several programming languages. With App Engine's Java runtime environment, you can build your app using standard Java technologies, including the JVM, Java servlets, and the Java programming language—or any other language using a JVM-based interpreter or compiler, such as JavaScript or Ruby. App Engine also features a dedicated Python runtime environment, which includes a fast Python interpreter and the Python standard library. The Java and Python runtime environments are built to ensure that your application runs quickly, securely, and without interference from other apps on the system.

With App Engine, you only pay for what you use. There are no set-up costs and no recurring fees. The resources your application uses, such as storage and bandwidth, are measured by the gigabyte, and billed at competitive rates. You control the maximum amounts of resources yourapp can consume, so it always stays within your budget.

App Engine costs nothing to get started. All applications can use up to 500 MB of storage and enough CPU and bandwidth to support an efficient app serving around 5 million page views a month, absolutely free. When you enable billing for your application, your free limits are raised, and you only pay for resources you use above the free levels.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and RIKEN have successfully acquired an all-sky X-ray image (Figure 1.) using the "Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI)" installed on the Exposed Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo." This quality image was achieved in the shortest period of time compared to other all-sky X-ray observation projects. In the future, it will be possible to repeatedly take this image every month or every few months.

The image above was compiled using data acquired by the Gas Slit Camera (GSC), one of MAXI's onboard X-ray camera systems (Figure 3. in the Attachment), between August 15 and October 29, 2009 (Japan Standard Time.) (Please also refer to Figure 4. in the Attachment.)Sources plotted in red in this figure radiate low-energy X-rays, and those in blue emit high-energy X-rays.

In this image, nearly 180 X-ray sources can be recognized by the eye.Taking less than two months to complete, this is the world's quickest acquisition of an all-sky "color" X-ray image. This kind of all-sky X-ray image in a similar sensitivity and energy band was compiled by composing data obtained by the NASA satellite, HEAO-1, 30 years ago through its two-year survey.(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960102.html)

In addition, the MAXI reported to an international mailing list of astronomers on five X-ray sources that have suddenly increased their brightness since the beginning of its mission. (A0535+26, GRB090831A,GRB090926B, XTE J1752-223 and 4U2206+54 in Figure 2.)

Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun (IKAROS) International Message Campaign for Mission Support

December 4, 2009 (JST) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS)*1 by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle in Japan Fiscal Year 2010 (as a secondary payload to the main payload, Venus Climate Orbiter"AKATSUKI.")We would like to launch a mission support campaign together with The Planetary Society in the United States, which also plans to launch a solar sail spacecraft named "LightSail-1"*2 at the end of 2010. JAXA would like to encourage people all over the world to send us their supportive messages to be carried aboard the IKAROS and the LightSail-1 on printed aluminum plates or on a Mini-DVD. We sincerely hope that our campaign will accelerate this international collaboration, exchange and promote the public's understanding of solar sail research and development.

The following is the information about the campaign.

1. Campaign name "Let's Set Sail for the Solar System on a Solar Yacht!"

WASHINGTON -- The launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, aboard a Delta II rocket is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 11, between 9:09 a.m. and 9:23 a.m. EST from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA will provide television and Internet coverage of prelaunch activities and liftoff of the agency's latest space science mission.

After launch, WISE will scan the entire sky in infrared light with a sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. The mission will uncover objects never seen before, including the coolest stars, the universe's most luminous galaxies and some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets.

A prelaunch news conference will be held Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. at the NASA Vandenberg Resident Office and broadcast on NASA Television. Reporters can ask questions from participating NASA centers. A WISE mission science briefing immediately will follow the prelaunch news conference. The briefings will be webcast at:http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

snip==============================================================http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/features/iphone-V-1-1.htmlThe first official NASA App invites you to discover a wealth of NASA information right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The NASA App collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources in a convenient mobile package. Come explore with us.

Dear U.S. President Barack Obama: The future direction of America’s civilian space program rests in your hands.

Your decisions must ensure that America builds upon a heritage of space leadership that has been hard-earned over the decades. Doing so will place this country on an energetic, inspiring and sustainable path in space — one that contributes to our technological productivity, economic growth and global stature in the 21st century.

You have the opportunity not only to maintain but to enhance our capabilities in space.

However, as recent studies have found, the U.S. human spaceflight program now finds itself on an unsustainable course in pursuit of goals that do not match allocated resources.

Congressional representatives from all across this nation have affirmed in no uncertain terms their belief that a strong space program is critical to the economic and technological success of the nation.

In many ways, your decisions regarding our space program hearken back to a time when America faced great challenges and difficulties — analogous to the complex issues that you are tackling as president and commander in chief today.

President John F. Kennedy took the high road of space. His leadership and investment in space set in motion the history-making giant leap to the Moon.

The Coalition for Space Exploration calls upon you to make certain our nation is pursuing the best trajectory for America’s space program — one that is safe, innovative, affordable and sustainable.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

The WOW Factor - Reading between the pixels of the Hubble's latest imagesBy Joel AchenbachSunday, December 6, 2009

Dr. Gene Nelson sent me a link to an article in the Washington Post about the Hubble Telescope.It is 4 long html pages and gives us something to think about. We have these WOW moments when we look at the Hubble images. Then again, having seen a lot of them, we may be in danger of burnout.http://hubblesite.org/http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

By this point, we've all seen so many pretty Hubble pictures that we're in danger of pretty-Hubble-picture burnout. We've seen exploding stars galore. We've seen majestic pillars of gas that are spawning new solar systems. We've seen galaxies colliding, galaxies getting ripped apart, galaxies becoming mired in their own ennui. We've seen Mars and Jupiter and Saturn in such stark close-ups that we can detect the cosmetic surgery scars.

We've seen quasars, pulsars, brown dwarfs, exoplanets, globular clusters and assorted nebulosities. It feels as if we've seen it all. Literally. The whole cosmos, soup to nuts. It kind of makes you wonder if we'll run out of new things to discover. Here's a real headline on a November news release from Stanford: "High-precision measurements confirm cosmologists' standard view of the universe." All figured out; everyone go home now.

So, you can just imagine the challenge that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope scientists faced earlier this year. In May, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis flew to the Hubble and, defying a stuck bolt that nearly derailed the mission, removed an old camera and replaced it with a better one. They fixed two other instruments, even though these things were not designed for orbital maintenance. Crew members installed new gyroscopes and batteries. After five spacewalks and much derring-do, Hubble was, in effect, a brand-new space telescope.

But what to look at next? The Hubble people had to pick targets to demonstrate the revamped telescope's abilities. They would call these images the Early Release Observations, or ERO (at NASA, everything has an abbreviation). They wanted to produce pictures with lots of (theirterm) Wow Factor.

snip-------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Nelson has been looking at the WFPC-2 which was recently retrieved from the Hubble Space Telescope and is at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) for a short time. He has seen many visible pits where space debris has struck the radiator surface while it was deployed. WFPC-2 will be on exhibit at NASM for about 2 months, then it will travel to JPL Maybe if you are in the Washington D.C. area you have a chance to visit NASM. At the top of the above article there is a link to comments and Dr. Nelson posted one. There are a lot more of them now but I will leave you with what he wrote.- LRK -

As a symposium attendee, I appreciated the thought-provoking presentations and panel discussions. There are some special artifacts from the Hubble Space Telescope including COSTAR and the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) that are on special exhibition at the NASM. Some of them will only be there until the end of December, 2009. Be sure and schedule a visit before then. The new "Moving Beyond Earth" Gallery has two of the three new Hubble artifacts - and plenty of "Wow!" with some innovative large scale moving graphics.

(The Hubble Legacy Symposium was made possible by financial support from the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.)12/5/2009 9:49:59 PMsnip-------------------------------------------------------------

Step back, take a breath, and prepare for a New Year and many more WOW events.Don't let the excitement wane.Give it away and watch it come back.

Two of Hubble's key instruments now reside at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The optical device that fixed Hubble's original flawed vision and Hubble's longest-lasting, most prolific camera, both removed during the last servicing mission, will be on display through mid-December. The instruments will then travel for temporary display in California before becoming permanently part of the Smithsonian's collection in March 2010snip==============================================================http://hubblesite.org/gallery/Capture the extraordinary. Explore the universe through Hubble's eye, and witness the most dangerous, spectacular and mysterious depths of the cosmos.

snip==============================================================http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.[4]

Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. The Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. When finally launched in 1990, scientists found that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, severely compromising the telescope's capabilities. However, after a servicing mission in 1993, the telescope was restored to its intended quality. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light. Hubble's Ultra Deep Field image, for instance, is the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe's most distant objects. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

The Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. There have been five servicing missions, the last occurring in May 2009. Servicing Mission 1 took place in December 1993 when Hubble's imaging flaw was corrected. Servicing missions 2, 3A, and 3B repaired various sub-systems and replaced many of the observing instruments with more modern and capable versions. However, following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the fifth servicing mission was canceled on safety grounds. After spirited public discussion, NASA reconsidered this decision, and administrator Mike Griffin approved one final Hubble servicing mission. STS-125 was launched in May 2009, and installed two new instruments and made numerous repairs.

The latest servicing should allow the telescope to function until at least 2014, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is due to be launched. The JWST will be far superior to Hubble for many astronomical research programs, but will only observe in infrared, so it will complement (not replace) Hubble's ability to observe in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.